The Effect of a Socio-cultural Factor on the Organization of Communication Structure among Iranian Teenagers in EFL Context

Whether language acquisition takes place in formal or informal language learning situations, language learners are in need of exposure and access to a kind of language input (Gass, 1997). Thus, this study investigated the effect of watching films as a socio-cultural factor on EFL learners' informal speaking proficiency. Thirty homogenous advanced female learners out of the pool of 50 were selected through International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in Urmia, Iran, and randomly assigned to two groups of 15 learners, one as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The researchers prepared a test of 160 informal expressions and words extracted from 6 American movies and administered it to a group of participants similar to the sample of the present study. At last, 140 unknown expressions and words were selected. Then, the we gave the selected expressions and words to the participants as pretest to write their Persian or English translation. During the treatment period, the experimental group was exposed to movies inside and outside the classroom for two terms. However, the control group was provided with non-videos program, that is, the teacher in that class followed the syllabus for advanced level. At the end of the treatment, the same test used in the pre-test was used as the post-test to check the enhancement of the learners' informal speaking proficiency. The results of an independent-samples t-test revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group regarding their informal speaking proficiency. The implications are discussed in terms of the advantages of using films in EFL contexts.